Frank-ly, Deval Patrick’s signature counts most

Credit: Faith Ninivaggi

HEAT IS ON: Gov. Deval Patrick, right, recently took questions about the push by former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank to be
appointed interim U.S. Senator.

Credit: Unknown

HEAT IS ON: Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren saw her Native American flap briefly disappear from her Wikipedia page.

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This is Barney’s world — we’re just living in it.

Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s appearance on MSNBC about a week ago — in which he essentially reached through the camera lens, shook Gov. Deval Patrick by the shoulders and demanded to be put into the interim U.S. Senate seat when US. Sen. John Kerry resigns — was followed up by an intense lobbying effort by liberal groups this week to convince Patrick to name Frank to the temporary post.

So is any of this swaying Patrick into jumping on the Frank bandwagon?

“No,” Patrick told reporters during a press conference Thursday intended to spotlight reforms to local housing authorities, before finding himself engaged in a Q&A about — who else — Barney.

Did Barney decide to go rogue on MSNBC because he knew Patrick wasn’t going to put him in the seat he wanted?

“Ask him,” said Patrick. “I saw him at (U.S.) Sen. (Elizabeth) Warren’s swearing-in on Saturday. He was great. He said, ‘Look, I didn’t think our conversation was confidential.’ I said, ‘OK, fine.’ But no harm. I’m not worried about it.”

Liberal groups Progressive Change Campaign Committee and SignOn.org — an off-shoot of MoveOn.org — have launched petition drives to make Frank a senator.

“Wow,” Patrick responded with fake-enthusiasm when informed the groups have so far collected 15,000 signatures.

Patrick denied the pro-Frank lobbying forces were starting to annoy him (though he did crack a smile as he responded).

He even sought to downplay the importance of the post itself.

“This is not the main event,” Patrick said of the temporary seat. “I know this is fun and interesting for everybody, but this is not the main event.”

Tell that to Barney.

Wikipedia hatchet job

Elizabeth Warren’s self-proclaimed Cherokee heritage has now sparked a war of words on Wikipedia, where rogue editors this week erased the entire section outlining the controversy over her Native American claims.

“There are people who want this controversy to go away,” said Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, who first reported the mysterious disappearance on his “Legal Insurrection” blog. “They’re trying to accomplish that on a source that a lot of people who have never heard of Elizabeth Warren, who didn’t follow the Massachusetts race, use as a neutral source.”

One of Jacobson’s readers tipped him off that the subsection dedicated exclusively to the Cherokee dustup was removed and the entire controversy was condensed to a three-sentence explanation within a narrative of the 2012 election.

That sparked some virtual public sniping among Wikipedia’s volunteer editors.

“Wikipedia is on the verge of losing complete credibility. Readers deserve better. Shame on you,” wrote one anonymous user on Warren’s edits page.

By Thursday, a four-paragraph section about the controversy, entitled “Cherokee self-identification” had reappeared — including the Herald’s report this week that Warren had not contacted the Senate Historical Office to self-identify as a Native American senator.

But Jacobson warned the restored Cherokee blurb could be short-lived.

“There’s somebody there who continues to try to remove that section,” he said. “This could change in an hour.”

Follow State House reporter Chris Cassidy on Twitter at @Chris Cassidy_BH.